Exploring the impact of the rise of digital media over the last few decades, this timely Handbook highlights the major role it plays in preserving and protecting heritage as well as its ability to promote and support sustainable tourism at heritage sites. Particularly relevant at this time due to the diffusion of smartphones and use of social media, chapters look at the experience and expectation of being ‘always on’, and how this interacts with heritage and tourism. Interdisciplinary contributions from leading scholars analyse how heritage and cultural destinations can benefit from digital media providing a range of relevant services and experiences, which can increase access to information for people participating in and visiting heritage sites. With critical overview chapters introducing and synthesizing connected topics in the Handbook, it further offers insights on how digital media can improve the experiences of visitors, connect both residents and visitors to heritage sites, remove barriers among actors in the field of heritage and tourism, and educate relevant stakeholders. Utilizing critical case studies throughout the text, this Handbook will be an invigorating read for social and cultural geography scholars as well as those focusing more specifically on digital media, heritage and tourism. Practitioners and policy makers working in heritage and tourism will find advice to integrate digital media into their actions.
